Andraya Carson: Special guest speaker in Summer Event

Andraya Carson, also know as Dray Carson, has accepted a position to sit on a panel of successful business women this summer for an event hosted by a very large public company in the wellness and beauty industry. A lot of people are very excited to have Andraya Carson back for her second year in a row. Please stay connected for further details. You can connect with Dray Carson at Carsonconnections.com or through Linkedin.

Dray Carson: Update on AZ Taxes and Payroll Taxes You should know

With the start of a new year comes new requirements to abide by regarding state taxes and payroll "stuff". Many of our clients have been asking for updates, and so, whether you are an employer or an employee, you should know a few things.....

Withholding Requirements:

• Register as an employer by filing Form UC-001 (Joint Tax Application). Registration can be completed online here.
• Employee Withholding Form, A-4
• Withholding Method = percent of gross pay
• Supplemental Rate = percent of gross pay

Local Taxes:

None

Arizona State Tax Unemployment Insurance:

Report quarterly wages and contributions by filing Form UC-018 (Unemployment Tax and Wage Report) by last day of month following end of quarter.  Can be completed online here.

Wage base $7,000 for 2014 and 2015
Rates range from 0.03% to 7.79 for 2015%
New employers use 2.0% for 2015
Job Training Tax surcharge - 0.10%, not included in stated rate.

Special Assessment of .50% for 2012.  This will NOT be assessed on wages in 2013.

State Disability Insurance:

None

State Labor Laws:

Minimum Wage - $7.90 per hour effective 1/1/14 and $8.05 per hour effective 1/1/15.
Termination Pay - Fired- pay within seven working days or the end of the next regular pay period, whichever is sooner. Quits- pay by the next regular payday.

New Hire Reporting:

Arizona New Hire Reporting Center
P.O Box 402
Holbrook, MA 02343

888-282-2064
Fax: 888-282-0502
To file online click here

Remit Withholding for Child Support to:

Division of Child Support Enforcement
Department of Economic Security
PO Box 40458
Phoenix, AZ 85067
602-252-4045
Report using this site

Reciprocal States:

None

Andraya Carson :: People are wondering why sex trafficking is being connected to the Super Bowl

Much has been said about the impact of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking, most of which indicates it is a key variable leading to a dramatic increase in commercial sexual exploitation and victimization. Recent reports and dozens of news articles strongly point to the Super Bowl as the most prominent national event where sex trafficking flourishes, with estimates of as many as 10,000 victims flooding host cities to be offered to willing purchasers intent on buying sex. While this has attracted a great deal of attention in the media and has served as a key point in the national dialogue on sex trafficking, support for such assertions has been sparse. While some such inquiries have been conducted capably, evidence supported research on the influence of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking has been limited.

With the support of the McCain Institute, researchers from Arizona State University sought to investigate and understand the true impact of the Super Bowl on sex trafficking, to further the national discussion on sex trafficking and its local and national impact as well as to develop a baseline understanding of regional sex trafficking trends for the 2015 Super Bowl which is to be held in Phoenix. What follows is what we believe to be the first comprehensive and systematic review of the quagmire that is the Super Bowl and sex trafficking and the first attempt to add clarity to a complex, national epidemic.

Please click here to read the full report

Source Credit: This article first appeared on the McCain Institute Website

Andraya Carson: Can Workplace Wellness Program Fix What Ails Us?

There is always so much discourse about the condition of our country’s healthcare system. Wouldn’t it be refreshing, and perhaps more rewarding, if as Americans, we were to focus as much energy on the state of our wellness?

Some could argue that we are a rather sickly nation. According to a recent report issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services, among Americans there is an especially high prevalence of risk factors such as tobacco use, high cholesterol, obesity, and insufficient exercise, which are associated with chronic diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. In fact, 45 percent of Americans, almost half the entire adult population, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. Even more frightening, 13 percent of Americans have two of these conditions and three percent are struggling with all three. It’s no wonder our healthcare system is so taxed.On a brighter note, however, these conditions can improve with lifestyle changes. To that end, more and more progressive employers are creating workplace wellness programs that promote, and sometimes even reward, healthier lifestyles.

Corporate wellness programs are nothing new. Traditional programs help employees maintain their health and prevent illness by providing education, fitness regimes and regular health screenings to ensure early detection of problems. Many corporate wellness initiatives even include an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help employees cope with personal or emotional issues that may be affecting their work and family lives.

In addition to delivering positive health benefits to employees, wellness programs yield employers significant benefits as well. Successful programs have been proven to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and decrease healthcare costs.

Of course, to be effective wellness programs have to be utilized. Poorly-designed programs can miss their mark if they don’t take into consideration the health needs and interests of the employee population. One Midwestern company, for instance, launched its wellness program by opening a fitness center and implementing a campaign to combat prostate cancer. The gym was a big hit among employees, many of whom already participated in regular exercise, but the prostate screenings were largely ignored. When the company did some after-the-fact analysis, they learned that some 70 percent of their employees were women of childbearing age. They also found that many of their employees were smokers. Obviously, prostate cancer was not a concern for this workforce, but women’s health issues and smoking cessation were.

Conversely, Volkswagen is breaking the mold with a highly-customized wellness initiative designed to take their employees’ performance to the next level. At the company’s new $1 billion assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, newly-hired Volkswagen employees are undergoing on-the-job training in advance of the facility’s production start early next year. As part of their training, assembly line workers are being required to participate in two hours of fitness training each day. The fitness program, which is specifically-designed to help individual workers develop the strength and endurance necessary to meet the physical demands of their particular job, is intended to create “industrial athletes” who are able to grip, lift, bend and push without tiring. (Volkswagen has no intention of instituting a weight threshold for assembly line jobs, but some workers who initially resented Volkswagen’s required fitness training have lost as much as 30 pounds in a matter of weeks.)

Corporate wellness initiatives are usually voluntary, so mandating that employees participate in customized fitness programs so they can better perform their jobs is a provocative concept that could gain traction over time, especially if American’s persistent health issues, such as obesity or high blood pressure, make physical labor difficult or even dangerous. For the time being however, companies are doing well if they can build a wellnessprogram that permeates the corporate culture and genuinely advocates for and promotes employees’ health and wellbeing.

When creating or redesigning a program, employers should try to adopt several best practices: 1.) assess your workforce’s health needs and put them before any personal cause or passion; 2.) consider the whole employee to address all areas of wellness, including physical fitness, disease prevention and detection, and emotional wellbeing; 3.) create a work environment where wellness is pervasive, going beyond the fitness center or health fair to include snacks and drinks available in the vending machines; and 4.) consider incentivizing employees to take advantage of wellness initiatives by holding workout or weight loss contests or offering small give-a-ways for participating in health screenings.

Corporate wellness initiatives cannot fix our healthcare system, but cultivating a more health-conscious culture, not just within one company but throughout our country, could certainly lead Americans to be less reliant on our already over-taxed healthcare system.

Original Post: http://www.gnapartners.com/news/can-workplace-wellness-programs-fix-what-ails-us-11

John Allen, is President and COO of G&A Partners, a Texas-based HR and Administrative Services company that manages human resources, benefits, payroll, accounting and risk management for growing businesses. For more information about the company, visit www.gnapartners.com. Andraya Carson is a business advsisor for G&A Partners and can be reached at acarson@gnapartners.com for a consultation.

Who is Andraya Carson

Andraya (Dray) Carson is an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in business development, operations, sales, marketing and consulting.  She began her career as a financial advisor and quickly advanced to the position of Managing Partner for a Phoenix based, full financial planning firm, and was recognized as the top advisor each year.  Additionally, Miss Carson created and implemented training programs, documented procedures and participated in product development. She then co-founded a private equity firm where she led the Investor Relations division and the managed the firm’s operations. In 2009 Miss Carson launched Carson Connections, a boutique business development firm, and enjoys working personally with small to mid-size business owners from a variety of industries, helping them identify the possibilities of their business and find solutions to significantly improve productivity and profitability.

Currently Miss Carson is also a Business Advisor with G&A Partners, a licensed professional employer organization (PEO) founded in 1995.  Together they provide best-in-class solutions that take businesses to the next level, creating a more streamline approach to managing Human Resources, and gaining access to better benefits, stress-free payroll and administrative relief

Andraya Carson: Bullying in the workplace- on ongoing epidemic

Unfortunately either yourself or someone you know how or will experience workplace bullying. Sometimes this may even occur after someone leaves the job, and by former employees. It is a horrible situation to be in, and from a human resources standpoint, can not be ignored. Read the article below for more information, and contact Andraya Carson with G&A  Partners to see how you can help reduce bullying in the workplace.

Vol. 59   No. 10

With no anti-bullying workplace laws in the U.S., HR shouldn’t ignore the issue.

By Kasi McLaughlin, PHR  9/24/2014 (originally posted)

Bullying is the last form of workplace abuse that is not considered taboo in the United States. Although it is four times as prevalent as some forms of illegal harassment, there is no anti-bullying workplace legislation in the U.S.—unlike in England, Sweden and Australia.

You may wonder whether a concept as nebulous as workplace bullying could possibly be legislated. Won’t employees start filing frivolous complaints against people they don’t like or bosses with lousy management skills? No. In fact, most of the bills that have been proposed to date precisely define an abusive environment and require proof of harm by a mental health professional. They also allow the bully to be sued as an individual while enabling the company to preserve its right to provide at-will employment.

What Is Bullying?

Gary Namie, president of the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), and Ruth Namie, CEO of the campaign, define workplace bullying as the malicious verbal mistreatment of a target that is driven by the bully’s desire to control him or her. Tim Field, author of Bully In Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge and Combat Workplace Bullying (Success Unlimited, 1996), defines it as a continual and relentless attack on other people’s self-confidence and self-esteem.

However it is defined, workplace bullying does not always include yelling, screaming or fits of rage. In fact, it usually takes place on a much quieter scale—in the form of exhibiting unwarranted criticism or intimidation, blaming someone without factual justification, unfairly singling someone out, or spreading rumors.

No matter what form it takes, bullying leaves people feeling powerless and confused. Some may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder years after the bullying occurred. According to the WBI’s 2012 Impact of Workplace Bullying on Individuals’ Health survey report, bullying drove 71 percent of targets to seek treatment from a physician; an alarming 29 percent contemplated suicide.

Who Are the Bullies?

It may not come as a surprise that women are often the victims of workplace bullying—but some people may not realize that the majority of bullies are also female. In fact, according to the results of the 2014 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, 68 percent of reported cases involve women-on-women bullying.

Like bullies at children’s schools, workplace bullies are not all evil sociopaths. Normal, well-adjusted members of society can fall prey to destructive bullying tactics when their authority is questioned. They often bully because they are afraid of seeing their own shortcomings exposed. Often, they feel threatened by the abilities or career ambitions of the people they bully and opt to use them as scapegoats.

Why Is Bullying Prevalent?

The authors of Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (Civil Society Publishing, 1999) suggest that workplace bullying occurs as often as it does because such behaviors are ignored, tolerated, misunderstood or instigated by the company.

People don’t identify this behavior as workplace harassment, and thus many victims don’t realize that something unethical is happening to them. Since 2003, more than half of the states have introduced legislation that would allow workers to sue for harassment without requiring discrimination based on a protected class status—and yet no such proposals have made it into law.

Finally, victims of bullying often become so worn down that they no longer feel capable of defending themselves. In fact, according to 2007 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey data, only 3 percent of bullied targets file lawsuits and 50 percent never even complain. This explains why more than three-fourths of targets choose to leave the battlefield of abuse and start fresh somewhere else.

How Can HR Help?

There are several things HR can do to help reduce workplace bullying:

Make the business case. Top management will be more likely to listen to you if you present a business case for the bottom-line costs of bullying. These costs generally fall into three categories: the cost of replacing staff; the cost of lost productivity as staff copes with the bullying; and the costs associated with investigations, potential legal action and loss of the company’s reputation.

Create an anti-bullying policy or update your harassment policy. This could be as simple as adding verbiage to your current harassment policy that states that harassment of any individual—not just those in a protected class—will not be tolerated. According to a 2011 survey on workplace bullying by the Society for Human Resource Management, 56 percent of companies have an anti-bullying policy.

Hold awareness training. It is not enough to create a policy. HR professionals must make sure that employees understand the issue and its consequences.

Establish a contact for reporting claims. Employees will feel comfortable reporting incidents only to independent employee advocates. If an employee feels that the person in whom they are confiding may have a relationship with the bully, you will never get the full story.

Promptly address complaints. It is not easy for people to report bullying incidents; it would likely be devastating if nothing is done after they’ve come forward. Employees may leave or, worse, advise other co-workers that their reports were not taken seriously.

Hopefully the law will catch up with the brutal reality of bullying. Until then, HR can help give voice to this silent epidemic by displaying compassion, developing fair policies and showing prompt follow-up.

Kasi McLaughlin, PHR, is a former banking officer and human resources manager with First Fidelity Bank.

- See more at: http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2014/1014/pages/1014-viewpoint-workplace-bullying.aspx#sthash.4uGN37QA.dpuf

- For complete article: http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2014/1014/pages/1014-viewpoint-workplace-bullying.aspx

Dray Carson: September Report Shows Hiring Up, Unemployment Down to 6-Year Low

by John Zappe on Oct 3, 2014, 11:47 AM

Propelled by strong hiring across a range of occupations and industries, September saw 248,000 new jobs added to the economy, which helped drive down unemployment to a six-year low of 5.9 percent.

The monthly jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also adjusted upward its count of hiring in August and July, increasing both by a combined 69,000 jobs. August’s initial anemic 142,000 estimate, which surprised analysts and prompted worrying about a hiring pause, was upped to 180,000.
Economists predicted September’s numbers would be in the 215,000 to 220,000 range. The higher number, plus the upward revisions, says that the August slowdown — only the second time this year hiring was under 200,000 — man just have been a blip.

Service sector shows strong gains

“The slower gain initially reported for August now appears to have been simply an aberration,” said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic and labor-market research at The Conference Board.
September’s job growth was concentrated in the service sector. Retailers and the leisure and hospitality industry added 35,300 and 33,000 jobs respectively. Grocers added 19,500 jobs, most of them marking the return to work of New England’s striking Market Basket employees. Restaurants and bars hired 20,400 new workers.

Other sectors showing hiring strength:

• Health care, up 22,600, the bulk coming from home health care and outpatient facilities;
• Employment services hired 33,600 new workers, with temp agencies accounting for 19,700;
• Professional and technical services added 21,100 positions, including jobs for architects and engineers, software developers and management and technical consultants;
• The financial sector was up 12,000 jobs, a nice gain for one of the sectors hardest hit by the recession.

Goods producers added only 29,000 jobs, with manufacturing contributing 4,000 and construction adding 16,000. Mining added 9,000.

Workforce participation at lowest level since 1978

Wages and the length of the work week changed little in September. Wage growth has been mostly stagnant this year, with hourly pay rates rising only 2 percent. The average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls was 34.6 hours in September.
The BLS report also showed participation in the labor force is continuing to contract, which is a factor in bringing down the unemployment rate. September’s rate of 62.7 percent was the lowest since 1978. Even if no new jobs were being created, the unemployment rate would be decreasing since there are fewer workers employed or looking for work.

John was a newspaper reporter and editor until his geek gene lead him to launch his first website in 1994. Never a recruiter, he instead built online employment sites and sold advertising services to recruiters and employers. As VP of one large media operation, his employment revenue alone approached $2.5 million. Besides writing for ERE, John consults with digital content operations, focusing on the advertising side. And when he's not doing either, he can be found hiking in the California mountains or competing in canine agility events.

 

For compete article: http://www.tlnt.com/2014/10/03/september-report-shows-hiring-up-unemployment-down-to-6-year-low/

 

To learn more about how you can receive Human resources, workers comp, payroll and benefits assistance, contact Dray Carson-Hruby through G&A Partners at acarson@gnapartners.com